Original subtitles

Sam!

Dora.

He's not answered, Dad.

If thou can hear me, show thyself!

Or it'll be the worst for thee!

Sam!

Oh, come in, love.

I'm... I'm looking for Dora.

They've gone looking for Sam.

I will put him me coat on to follow.

He's not been at school since dinner time.

One of the lads was plaguing him.

About what?

He told Sam he'd seen you and Dora together.

Well, that's more than likely.

He meant a bad thing, Alan.

Oh, kids.

They use words we taught them, lad.

It's not been like that, Polly.

I know that, but young Sam doesn't.

I'd wed her tomorrow, were she free.

I know that too.

I'm not your enemy.

Jack won't face facts.

Not where she's concerned.

Not when it comes to you living together.

We're grown.

We're not kids.

Are we to live apart because we fear to be talked about?

There's some that do, and there's some that wish they had.

It's not my nature, Polly.

It's not hers, either.

He made her self-willed, and now it'll turn against him.

Oh, now then, Alan.

Careful.

Look, you stop at home.

It's cold out here.

I'll go.

I'll see thee.

Hey, young Fred's just told me.

Are they all out after him?

Aye.

He and Lot have gone far from the nest, won't Sam?

It's them stacks I worry about.

Well, they play on them every day.

Yon Far End's still burning, where Trevor Sharpe's last were nearly lost.

He's been told often enough.

What did you do with Dirty Dick?

George?

I fed him.

What else could I do?

I bet he got his muck off first and all, too, didn't he?

And without asking.

Aye, he did.

Great donkey.

Wouldn't for me, you know.

He sat there like Stanley Baldwin.

I'll have it mucky, he says.

I'll have it served, he says.

I'm mastering this house, he says.

I asked him for his wage.

All of it.

You shouldn't have done that, love.

I'm not going to argue with you, Polly.

Where's he sleeping?

Oh, he's dad.

Oh, he's not sleeping here.

He's left.

Him and his dad had a row.

Oh, well, he'll be out on streets, then.

Nay, Ethel.

No, he'll come capping hand if he comes to me.

I'm not going to make it easy for him.

He'll make his own shrivel up, then.

Who told you that?

You told me.

I say he's got the tongue back.

I'll be going home.

My dad'll be back from Canada soon.

Who told you that?

Well, he will, won't he?

Aye.

Well, I suppose he will.

Don't you like stopping with me and your Aunt Ethel?

I like being somewhere Mum and Dad best.

Oh, well, we can't all have what we want in the nose.

We'll get a little leather and we'll get it back, won't we?

Nay, he'll not.

Yes, he will.

I tell thee, he'll not.

He will, though, and I will.

Well, if it's deterring to be leathered.

There's not only one with troubles in the nose.

I'm grown up and I've got troubles.

They're seen now, yet.

Wait till they get wed.

Wait till they ask thee for the wage that they's earned.

I'm not going to get wed.

They will, though.

What if I don't want to?

That's trouble, they'll want to.

Why will I want to?

Because they will, that's all.

When they start courting.

I could go spill all that long grass.

Who told you that?

Tommy Jameson did.

What else did he tell thee?

He told me.

He told me a lot of things.

He knows all about it, does he?

Aye, I shan't go courting.

Because of what he said?

I mean, I know some of what he doesn't know.

And I know some of what else I know.

Back at Gosper Hall is Coggy's scrapyard.

And there's no grass grows there, long or short.

It's a saying, that's all.

Did my court in here.

With my Aunt Ethel.

When it were raining... She'd not come in when it were fine.

Never rained enough in them days.

What did you do?

I courted her.

On their feet now, come on.

Let's go and get it over with.

You've not found him?

We thought he might have come back here.

No, he's not come back here.

He'll come back when he's ready.

What option has he?

I'll make tea.

Early bed for him when he does come.

It'll be more than early bed for him.

I shall want a word with him before he climbs into any bed.

I'm to be that that's keeping him away.

He needs to be corrected.

He's a lad.

Aye, and lads have to learn to respect the feelings of others.

He misses his dad.

He's bound to.

Choose what we think of him.

Won't be natural for him not to miss Harry.

We don't mention that name round here.

No, and every time you don't mention it, it must shout out loud to that lad.

Now, has anybody been honest with him yet?

Have you, Dora?

No, I've not.

You put your own house in order.

Don't you start on it here.

I'll put an oven plate in his bed.

I'd better put one in the oven while I's at it.

If thou gets our George back on the chain, it'll be a cold bed for him, I reckon.

You're an old bugger, Jack Barraclough.

She were born wearing britches, that one.

Ethel's right.

I've not been honest with him.

And now somebody's saved you the bother.

Did they not tell you why he's gone off?

Something at school, wasn't it?

One of the lads told him about you and Deakin.

Made a dirty tale of it.

If you choose to go on that way, that's what you'll get from all around you.

I know.

I've seen it.

And I know what the end will be.

Same as I knew with your mother.

Why do you do it?

You don't care for Deakin any more than you did for Ali Wilson.

How do you know what I cared?

You don't know anything about it, Dad, except what I've told you.

Were you listening at Quay Hall?

Were you on at bed at middle at night?

Have you been inside my head or inside Ali's?

I wed him, didn't I?

I cared that much.

I'd had my way.

You'd never have wed him.

Your way?

You did have your way.

Would you have had me marry a collier?

No, I wouldn't.

No, and I knew it.

I never said as much.

Oh, you didn't have to.

And that left me with half a dozen lads I had a chance for.

And Ali was the best.

He was the best, Dad.

He was the best of a damn bad bunch, then.

I was born in wrong place for choice.

It was you made me choose.

It was you made me want something better.

Was it wrong to make you want something better, then?

You made me want something that wasn't there.

There were some nice lads in Skeleton when I was a lass, but they all worked at pits,

so I walked past them with my nose in the air.

They weren't good enough for Jack Butterclough's lass, were they?

It weren't the lads.

It were the lives, Dora.

And Daddy knew you didn't like him.

That's another thing.

Didn't make it easy for me that, Dad.

You made it plainer and plainer as time went on.

If it hadn't been for that, we might just have had a chance.

Nay, now, that's not true, Dora.

How do you know what's true?

Things go on in here that aren't said, that I never tell to you, that I think

about and never tell to you, so how do you know what's true for me, Dad?

Dora!

Make him his tea and keep him here.

I'm going to call for Sam.

He won't come back to threat.

Dora!

Let her walk it off, love.

In the ghouls.

In the ghouls?

My grandad might be there.

I mustn't be afraid of the grandad.

You are.

Me?

Afraid of your grandad?

You'd come in with me if you weren't.

I've brought him back.

So I see.

I'll go and tell our Dora he's back.

No, your Dora's just gone out again.

I'll deal with that.

And where've you been?

Oh, he weren't so far away.

Worrying folks.

He won't do it again.

I should hope not.

You missed your tea, did you?

Yes.

Serve you right if you didn't get any, wouldn't it?

Yes.

Sit at that table over there, then.

I'll be off, then.

We're making some tea.

Oh, aye, aye.

Right, then.

You'd have been better looking for that lad than quarrelling with each other.

He went on his own.

Let him come back on his own.

It's not that that's smarting, is it, Jack?

It's what was said about her and Alan Dakin.

That's another name we could dewy out here in.

We shall hear it from our Dora.

Choose what you think about it, Jack.

Aye, and from other folks we shall hear it, you know.

The same lot that said, serve you right, when

you lost your job over that striker a year back.

I don't take much account of them.

I've learnt to walk down the street and feel eyes on me back, and see lips that

move but sent out, and yet know every word.

I've learnt that much.

And if she's a bastard, won't we?

Nay, Jack.

Never mind, nay, Jack.

What else will it be if she's unwed?

They'll marry in time, when she gets a divorce.

If divorce comes too late, a bearing mark for life, when the

kids start clacking in the playground, it's time to call a stop.

It's too late to call a stop, Jack.

She'll do as she wants.

She's got what you always wanted her to have, a mind of her own.

Not to disregard me.

I didn't teach her that.

You can't have it both ways, Jack.

She took me to task for wanting somewhat better for her.

I heard.

Well, I was wrong, then.

You made her feel different from her own kind.

That's what she meant.

And she read me wrong.

It's the human nature to want more for your own.

Who says it's human nature?

You said it.

In wanting more for her than for anybody else.

You said it, Jack.

You found him, then?

Where's Dora?

You'd best ask him there.

She doesn't know he's found.

She's gone out again.

I was going to go after her when I'd done this.

Nothing shall have cooled down me now.

Cooled down from what?

From a row with your dad.

He'll know better than I do, what about?

I'll go after her.

Let's see your hands.

We don't eat muckie in this house.

Have you leathered him?

Leathered him?

When his granddad starts taking his belt off, I'll

need to tell him he's been leathered already, won't I?

Unless you'd rather he had it from him.

Is he home?

He's home.

You'd best go round and tell him he's been found.

Your mum would never forgive us.

Only, before you go, there's that other two are turned to, isn't there?

Aye.

Sit at the table.

I'll bring you your tea.

You've raised dust off his pants, haven't you?

Aye, I have that.

Smells more like cool dust off that pan I'm washing there than good, clean muck.

Go and tell my mum.

I'll wash my hands when I come back.

I'll sit there.

Aye.

You're not too sore to sit down, I see.

Is it smart?

Aye, it's smart.

Would you like me to rub somewhat on it?

Nay, I'll be all right.

Aye, you will.

You've a good mate there.

It's to be hoped you learn to appreciate him.

I found him.

Where?

Down at the allotments.

I said he'd not go far.

Where is he then?

Oh, Jack, he were upset.

Aye, he might have a few more.

I might have gone wrong with one, I shall not go wrong with another.

Let him fasten the buckle again.

You what?

I've leathered him.

Mum!

Have you told your mum?

I've told her.

I see you lot be stopping.

Eh?

Cup.

I've been thinking.

Aye.

I've been thinking.

I've been thinking.

I've been thinking and I've made me mind up.

Only for one thing.

I shall ask thee to keep the trap shut.

About what?

About that.

The rest of me wage, bloody fivepence.

I see.

Then they'll seize more than I do.

Can't see what difference it makes.

What?

To keep it or give it to me?

Give it to thee.

Fivepence, what difference does it make?

If I give it to thee or thee gives it to me.

What difference does it make to you?

It's what other chaps do.

Takes more to make a man than being a master, you know.

It's principle, that's what it is.

Is this all you had left for Spence?

You wanted it, now you got it.

Some weeks this, some weeks more, some weeks not at all.

That's how it goes, isn't it?

I reckon.

So, if I was to guarantee you the same every week,

you'd have something to look forward to, wouldn't you?

How can you do that?

Well, you've never left me short on my wages, have you?

There, I knows I've not.

Not when I've earned it, not when it's been coming in.

Ah, well, I shall do the same for you then.

And a bit into the pot into the bargain.

Bit in pot?

What for?

For a rainy day.

God knows we get enough of them.

You see, that's what I wanted the management of this for.

You'll say now to nobody?

Nobody'll hear out from me.

You've given up smoking then?

I'm out.

Thought I might have a duck done here.

I've an inch in.

It's cracked across.

I could patch it with a bit of stamp paper.

Will that suit?

Same every week?

No more, no less?

It'll suit.

Go and get your cigs then.

You'll be through to lining if you don't stop looking at that jacket.

Where's Jungan?

He's out at back.

Shall I take him?

No, it's too near his bedtime.

George...

I've got something to tell you.

I've been meaning to save it, but you might as well know.

What have you always wanted?

Don't say a motorbike.

Nay!

Has it worked?

Aye, I'm pregnant.

It's worked.

Nay!

It never has!

By good luck and good management.

I can't take it in.

It's been that long a time.

I know.

And you're in work too, thank God.

That's what did it.

With a bit of help from thee like.

Can I tell folks?

Makes you feel a man, doesn't it?

Can I?

Not yet.

No, let's just wait and see which road the wind blows.

Just between you and me for now, eh?

Sam!

Dorrit's all right.

He's turned up.

He's at Ethel's.

You know why he did it?

Aye, more or less.

So, it started then, hasn't it?

Kids, that's all.

I can't count on grown-ups.

I don't count on kids.

He'll forget it.

Doesn't even know what it means, as likely as not.

Every time he sees a motorbike and a sidecar, he thinks his dad's come back.

Pity his dad weren't fonder of him then.

He was, in his way.

His way?

I'd not leave her bare, not like he did.

He'd leave Eileen Brady for me.

That's different.

She's her own woman.

Is it?

I sometimes think we're all bairns underneath whatever else it is we pretend to be.

Don't you ever feel to weep like you did when you were a kid?

We put it behind us.

Because it's expected of us.

We do too much because it's expected of us.

It's that going cool on me, aren't there?

That Dad's been talking.

I rowed with me Dad tonight and it hurt, but it's not that.

It's Sam.

I've got to do what's right for Sam.

I bore him.

He didn't ask to be born and I own what's right for him.

We get on, me and Sam.

There's no worries there.

That was before though, wasn't it?

Before what?

Before you took me back at Gospel Hall into long grass.

I did what?

That's what they told them, the lads.

The mucky young devils.

Mucky?

Aye, well, they know no better, I suppose.

It's part of life.

They learn about it as best they can, like we did.

Is that how you see it then?

Mucky?

It's...

It's not how I think of you.

You want to put me in a glass case and look at me, do you?

No.

Well then?

That make him fond of me?

Touch me then.

I'm mucky.

Six days a week I'm mucky from waist down.

Sheets get black with it.

I've cuts all over me.

They fester in bed.

I come home wanting out but a chair to drop in and hide me face in me hands.

Drained of want half me time.

Touch me.

Can't you get into it?

I might, if I could read it right.

Where are them glasses you got from Woolworths?

They don't help any more.

You ought to have your eyes tested properly, be right.

I could do without me glasses if I could get these bloody teeth out.

Aching?

Aye, they ache on and off.

Item number one is that, when a ship comes in.

Don't be too hard on young Sam, Jack.

Hard?

You see his dad in him, don't you?

I be gotta do.

It's him that'll decide our Dora, you know.

Him, the young'un?

If she thinks he'll be settled enough with her and Alan, then that's what it'll be.

She'd let a bear decide a thing like that.

She's made up her mind but for that.

There's nothing else'll stop her.

He's come to say sorry.

He has, has he?

Aye, well, it's all forgotten now, isn't it, Jack?

It'll not have to happen again, will it?

No, Grandad.

Is he bigger than you, Tommy Jamieson?

Yes.

It's not just a matter of inches, you know.

You'll have to learn to stand up for yourself, won't you?

Yes, Grandad.

It's him that were wronged.

I didn't say it wasn't.

I said it'll not have to happen again.

That's what I said.

I don't expect he enjoyed being out in the cold all that time, did you, Sam?

No.

No, I didn't.

Kiss your Grandma goodnight, then.

We'll have you to bed.

Goodnight, Grandma.

Goodnight, my love.

Have you not got one for your Grandad, then?

He'd be disappointed if you'd not.

Has he not shaved himself, then?

I've shaved.

I'll have to take you to see Rovers play one of these days.

You'll not have seen Rovers, I reckon.

My Dad took me last boxing day.

He decided to come back to us, then.

Come on, then.

I'll frown to bed with you.

I'll see to him.

Don't be a bother to your Aunt Ethel.

He's no bother to me.

There's someone old enough to know better who causes me more trouble than he does.

Not the love.

Come on, then.

Off you go.

You can tell she's had none of her own.

Jack!

Soft as butter he'll be when them two have done fawning on him.

That'll not be for much longer, will it?

Threatening me?

Threatening?

Threatening what?

I shall be going with Alan, that's all.

It's not a threat, it's a fact, Dad.

You've faced facts before, haven't you?

She's never talked to me like this in her life before, do you know that?

Don't blame Alan.

Oh, I know better than to blame Alan.

I know where blame is.

I've known all my life where blame is.

We's new-found friends, that's where blame is.

I've taken a leg up because it's the only way to sort it out for us.

I'm still a pitman, Jack.

Aye, I suppose a manager'd call himself a pitman.

I suppose Lord Scarton'd call himself a pitman since he owns one or two.

Is that your pitman, then?

I've taken the job because I need the money.

That's what I've done.

Aye, and she's taken thee because she needs the money.

Thank you for that, Dad.

Do you think I don't know that, what you've just said?

Do you think I don't know why she'll take me?

Do you think I don't care?

You're a fool, then.

No matter to me that, but do you know what it makes her?

Going with you for money.

No more talk like that, Jack, if you please.

You keep out of this, Polly.

Yes, I will keep out of it.

I'll leave this room so I'll not be shamed from listening to you.

You'll hear no words like that from me.

You might see it like that, Jack, but I don't.

We have things faster than us we'd have different if we could.

Only it seems we can't have different so we've to live with it.

We've to live, Jack.

Put up with it, you mean?

Aye, put up with it, if you like.

Aye, and every time you put up with it, you shove a year in at the end for

somebody else to live with and put up with it.

You make us look to them like animals that's born in muck and ready to live in it.

I can hear them now.

Now, take that chap Jack Battlegroup's daughter, they'll say.

Married out of her class, couldn't live up to it, so back she goes.

Lives with one of her own kind and bears him a bastard.

They're all the same, they'll say.

I can hear them now.

Give them a bath and they'll shove coal in it.

I'm sorry, darling, but I can't take much more of this.

Well, let's go.

Aye, go, go, only never come back once you've gone, you know.

Now, that'll not go with you.

You heard what they said to him at school today.

I heard.

And you'll leave him behind then, will you?

We shall see what he says in due course.

And you'll be ruled by what a baron says.

I can think of worse, Jack, by bloody hell I can.

It's us she's turning her back on, Polly.

The waste of life she sees in us, it's all of it.

Living next door with yon pair.

He should be grateful for that.

I am.

That's a house, empty.

Operatoria street.

Aye, then you'd know why if he asked what the rent is.

If I'd work.

Now, straight off to sleep.

Like a good lad.

Mamma, here's MacDandle.

Does she?

Oh, I don't see why.

Doesn't out in the dark to be afraid of.

I'll leave it over here, then.

So you don't knock it over.

Right?

All right.

You've not said your prayers.

I say them in bed.

Ah, well, that makes sense.

I used to gobble mine on my knees in a draught.

That's why nobody ever stopped to listen, eh?

Night, night.

Night, Aunt Ethel.

Don't you stop awake waiting for your mum.

She needs you to be a good lad just now.

And don't you ever think you don't come first with her, cos you do.

You always have and you always will.

Whatever else there is.

Do you understand me?

Yes.

Night, night.

Night.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

God bless mum, God bless dad, God bless granddad Wilson and grandma Wilson,

and uncle George and aunt Ethel, and uncle Frank and grandma Barclough,

and God bless me and make me a good boy forever and ever.

Have you not got one for your grandad, then?

Amen.

There you are.

Has done it at last, then, has he?

Done what?

I knows.

Who told thee we were having a beer?

She told your mother ten minutes back.

I knew there was something.

You've been bouncing like a rubber ball this last week.

Ah, that can smirk.

What's clever about it, then?

There's more to riding a bike.

Any fool could do it.

She said you'd have something to say.

I could say a lot more than that.

Well, a bit of work.

Aye, and you'd better stop in work and all.

Another mouth to feed.

You've seen him?

Aye, I've seen him.

All puffed up himself.

You've not spoilt it for him, Jack.

Nay, I kept my tongue from clacking, more or less.

He wants a lad.

Aye, he would.

It's a different sort of trouble from to the kind.

Turning against her, are you?

Because she's leaving us.

She's not gone yet.

She'll not stop, Jack.

She'll go with Alan.

Will she?

Happen there's someone they've not taken into account.

How long do you think he's going to keep you on job when

they find out he's living with a woman he's not wed to?

They'd not take his job off him.

They're gospel-allers, aren't they?

You know what that means as well as I do.

The way you've been talking, you'd done a different.

I'd take no man's job, Polly.

And neither will Jeff Fawcett.

He took mine.

Them has paid him to, you always said.

Not him.

Paid to do as he were told, you said.

Happen.

You should have tackled him at the time.

Asked for a hearing.

Gone cap in hand, you mean?

No shame in that to a man with a burden of a family.

Shame to them that'd ask it of you.

Even so, it'd weigh heavy, that cap, Polly.

Aye.

Well, it's behind us now.

Too late for all that.

Is it?

Is it?

Well, your dad should attend to his own life.

He'd have something to say about this if he was here.

Not good enough or something such rubbish.

It's not the place I would have chosen for you.

It's a house.

There'll be curtains to draw and fire and grate and a door to shut.

And if you're cold, you can put coal on fire and

not be feared to because it's somebody else's.

Aye.

I can give you that much.

You and your humble offerings.

Let's not go out front door again.

What for?

We can go down backs, can't we?

Aye, we can, if you tell me what for.

They were watching us through curtains.

Well, have you never watched anybody through curtains?

We've not got much to put in here, have we?

That bed, the one at your Ethel's, is it?

I thought it might be yours.

It is, but we'll need two, won't we?

Two?

There's Sam.

Oh, aye.

I forgot.

You keep forgetting Sam.

No, I don't.

It's just... I don't, Dora, honestly.

I don't mean to.

No, I know you don't.

It just takes getting used to lots of things.

It'll clean up.

Aye, it will.

As soon as we've told them we'll take it, I can come round and make a start.

So...

we're going to live here, are we?

If you will.

And nobody to bother us?

No.

And nothing to tie us to each other?

Nothing.

Marriage, I meant.

Well, you'll get your divorce in time.

We'll be tied then.

If we want to.

We shall find out, shan't we?

Look, I don't need to find out about that.

You might be cured when the time comes.

Cured?

What you feel for me.

Cured?

Might do that for you, living with me.

Having me here all the time.

Hardly ever on your own ever again.

And Sam hanging around getting on your nerves.

I'll not be cured.

It isn't cured.

Not like some that you're badly with.

No.

Love isn't.

What do you think I feel for you then, if not that?

Something... that I once felt for somebody a long time ago.

It came... and it went.

It's all in that head of yours.

It's got nothing to do with me.

Don't fret about it.

Don't look so sad.

I don't understand you.

I feel you laughing at me.

I'm not.

I envy you, maybe.

When we...

look around this room...

we see two different places, you and me.

Maybe if I could... I'd like to choose your place.

It's...

a place to be in love in.

But it's safer to...

just care than be in love.

It's safer.

And it's safer to do the best you can with what's real.

Where's Sam, anyway?

He went out at back.

Jackie Thomas says you're coming back to our school.

What could he?

I'm not.

What, they're looking at us with him?

They're looking, that's all.

He does seem to care, doesn't he?

Jackie Thomas says.

He's not.

He's coming back to Skeleton.

They're going to live there, for all of us.

Forever.

He'll not be a minute, Mr. Barraclough.

He's out back with his pigeons.

I'm sorry you've got to stop here.

Only there are elders in there with a chap.

And Max is in there with another.

Mr. Fawcett don't like them much.

They're chaps.

He's got my sympathy.

How's your Frank?

He's in Durham, teaching.

Aye, our Cass told me.

You like it here?

Yes, I like it.

They're good to me.

I left my boots by the scraper, Jane.

Could you get them in for me?

Yes, Mr. Fawcett.

Hello, Barraclough.

Is it work?

Aye, you might say it is.

But it's Sunday.

I'd have gone away if you'd given her that message.

No, no, no, you knew I'd see you.

You're a busy man.

I asked a favour.

A favour?

To see you.

I'm sorry you've got to stand out here.

I did explain to me.

We could go out at back.

Stop where I am, if it suits you.

I suppose it must be eight years or more.

We've passed in street.

We've done that.

You've always acknowledged me.

We won that strike against Old Orner.

Was that what made him sell out?

It were to do with it.

I wondered.

Some said one thing, some another.

He'd sold it before, but you knew that, of course.

He could have sold it to a better man than me, do you know that?

We won't go to things like that, Barraclough.

Sit yourself down, man.

No, I'll stop where I am.

Please yourself.

Who was it who closed the door on me?

Does it matter?

It matters to me.

What, after eight years?

Eight years out of work.

You don't forget where you started on a road like that.

Was it you that put the word against me?

Look, there are other forces at work than you and me.

And when lads came back, there were fewer jobs.

You weren't the only one, you know.

Well, some went back in that cage that were half the value I was.

I wasn't a big enough fish for Orner to worry over.

He's got his banks and his business as his mason.

He wouldn't know about me.

It must be you that has the word.

Look, I'm only a little fish too, you know.

The agent, is it him then?

It's taken you eight years to come and ask for work.

I did come back once, they didn't tell you?

Well, this time I've come straight to thee.

I'm asking for out.

The pit top, even.

Mention summat.

Anything.

I wish I could, Barraclough.

I were best man on face in my time.

How many years were you and me in rescue together?

Isn't that worth out?

Have I no credit?

Look, every day I turn chaps away because there's not enough jobs.

Chaps who's got bairns to feed.

You'd think I was offering a land full of milk

and honey to see him waiting at big gates.

Do you think I'm not sick and tired too?

So the door's still closed.

He was mating, wasn't it?

I said too much.

A little fish that made too much of a splash and got himself noticed.

You should have spoken to your own.

What good would that do?

What attention's paid to them?

They could have made you check way money with their privilege.

They were the right.

But they wanted a younger voice than mine, as was proper.

You not for me then?

Not for me.

Where's Sam?

I said where's Sam?

Eh?

You with us.

You what?

What's that?

One of our francs.

Here, give it back.

How we are made.

What did you say?

I said, what did you say?

Hm?

You said something.

Me?

When you took that, that I was reading off me.

Oh, I said, where's Sam?

His gran wants him to start at Sunday school today and it's half past one already.

Oh, she must have forgotten then, because that's where he is.

Round at me mum's, sulking.

Sulking?

I took it off him, that.

What for?

What for?

Well, you can see what it's about.

It's about the gooseberry bush.

About the what?

You know.

The bloody gooseberry bush.

How long have we been married?

Eh?

Same making babies to me, you great soft thing.

Gooseberry bush.

When were you under a gooseberry bush?

Well, I took it off him when you were old.

I suppose you'd rather he learned about what went

on back of the gospel hall in the long grass.

Hasn't he a right to know how he's made?

Well, nobody told me how I was made.

Well, that'd fill a good thick book.

There's some things you're better not knowing.

Well, Atten, that's what took us so long.

Atten, you were a sweating artist when you need have been sweating least.

I know all I need to know, I do.

Well, I was talking to a Catholic woman the other day, and you remember that chap

round at the club that time that gave you them dates?

Oh, do I?

Well, from what she told me, you got them the wrong way round.

That's the last.

I'd better see about getting you to Sunday school, me lad.

Will you do?

Aye, I'll do.

The drawers will be useful anyway.

There is that furniture over the shop.

You could claim it, I'm sure.

I don't think we'll bother about that.

So far as I know, Harry's dad sold it any road.

Did you like the house?

Yes, we shall take it.

That's all right, then.

I thought he was going to Sunday school.

I should have changed him before he went out.

I'll see to it.

Round to your aunt Ethel's and make a start.

I'll be round in a minute.

What shall I do?

A flannel round the moon for a start and no laking.

He doesn't want to go.

Did he say so?

No.

He told her mate of his that we were going to stay in Skeleton forever, we as a dad.

Forever, eh?

You should talk to him, Dora.

What shall I say?

The truth?

Well, there'll be a way of putting it.

Oh, will there?

I've got my fairy story, you mean.

His world changed when his dad left.

He thinks it's all going to change again.

He's a child.

He wants the things he knows.

Forever.

I'll see to it.

I didn't mean to be sharp.

I'm sorry.

I'm a trouble to you, aren't I, me and my bairn?

Only that I want it settled.

Happen you want to go off to Canada once the novelty's worn off?

Nay.

So little it takes to please you.

We can't do more than take pleasure in each other in this world.

There's not many do.

We could.

Harry could come back from Canada, you know.

It'll be just like him, his pockets empty, running to

his dad, coming to me, expecting me to take him back.

You'd not, though.

You've said you'd not.

He's Sam's dad.

It's not just what you want in life when you've another life to think of.

That thinking of him ain't taking me.

I'm food in his belly and a roof over his head.

You make it sound like a sacrifice as though there's nothing in it for me.

Why do you keep saying that?

Well, isn't that what it is?

I...

I shall grow to you.

I know I shall.

I feel it already, in a way.

I shall grow to you.

It'll never be the same for you as it is for me, though.

What a lad you are.

Aye.

Three years younger than thee.

No, I didn't mean like that.

I lived with somebody for ten years.

I started off in a dream world.

I knew nothing, nor did Harry.

And it all slipped away from us over those ten years.

I learned a lot in them ten years.

And I learned I'm not the little princess me dad always saw me as.

And Harry, too, at first.

I'm a spoilt lass with a temper.

Still having a way, you know that, don't you?

No, I wouldn't care if I did.

You're in a dream world, too, Alan.

Look, it doesn't last.

Not when you live with someone day in, day out.

Dreams don't hold out against too much of what's real.

You've such a lot to learn.

There's more than them three years between you and me.

Then I shall learn it from thee.

I've given a lot.

I don't take all that much pleasure in giving any more.

You're honest beyond the need.

Am I?

Then why can't I be honest with Sam?

Why can't I tell him that one day...

all the things that he knows will be gone forever?

Never to come again.

Never.

He's a child.

Aye, he's a child.

And I'm a grown woman.

But it still pains me, even now.

What...

What happens to us as we grow, that...

we bear it.

And you'll do that for your mother?

Yes, Gran.

I said you'd be a little man.

And you will be.

Yes, Gran.

He's a grand chap, your Uncle Alan.

He'll take good care of you both.

You know that, don't you?

Yes, Gran.

Gran?

Yes, love?

Will I never see my dad again?

Will I be in Canada forever?

Good heavens, no.

It'll happen you'll go there yourself one day.

Now that'll be a grand thing to look forward to, won't it?

And when you come to think of it...

well... it'll be like having two dads in a way, won't it?

And there'll always be a place for you here.

You know that.

There'll always be a place for you here.